Continuous commentary, punctuated by intermittent choruses of cheers and boos, resounded throughout the Biotechnology Building, where students gathered at an election night event co-hosted by Cornell Democrats and Cornell Students for Harris. Approximately 200 attendees met to hear the impending results at a watch party complete with catered food, stickers and pins that read “Students for Harris-Walz.”
The event was one of many watch parties held across campus Tuesday evening, where students waited with baited breath as polling offices closed and news outlets began releasing projected winners for each state.
Niles Hite ’26, president of Cornell Democrats, said the organization hosted the watch party to “foster a sense of community” and “make people more politically engaged.”
Graduate student Ocean Karim, communications director for Cornell Democrats, echoed similar sentiments, emphasizing the importance of having like-minded people supporting each other during this time.
“It could be one of the biggest moments in our lives,” Karim said. “The fact that we’re all coming together just to be able to have this shared experience is really exciting overall.”
As results started to come in from across various states, a sense of worry set in among many students. Josephine DeBellis ’28, who attended the Cornell Democrats watch party, expressed anxiety that the election results might not be finalized by midnight.
“A lot of people are on edge because we’re all quite vulnerable in this situation politically, and no one wanted it to come to this point where the election is this close and decisive,” DeBellis said. “There’s just a lot of liberties and freedoms for people that are more marginalized that are at risk under the current political climate.”
Black Students United also hosted an election night watch party, at Ujamaa Residential College starting at 9 p.m., where around 65 students attended.
Cameron Smith ’26, BSU co-president, felt nervous in the days leading up to the election, urging those around her to vote. Now that Election Day has passed, Smith said she is shifting her mindset to what comes next.
Reflecting on the BSU watch party, Smith stressed the importance of creating a safe space for students to digest the election results.
“We’re trying to create a community here where people feel safe enough to talk about how they feel and are able to address however they feel after [the results come in],” Smith said.
Seth Vieira ’26, BSU political action co-chair, also emphasized the importance of community, noting that now more than ever, people must come together.
“I feel like this election is one of the more consequential when it comes to the Black experience, what that’s gonna look like over the next couple of years. Regardless of the result, we’re in a really bad spot in this country,” Vieira said. “So I think as a community, we need to start to come together.”
Cornell Hillel was another organization that hosted a Tuesday watch party, attended by a handful of people who munched on black and white cookies and spanakopita as they watched the election results trickle in at the Hillel House on North Campus. The event fell under Hillel International’s non-partisan MitzVote initiative, which aimed at getting Jewish students out to vote.
“I was sitting in my room, and just was thinking about what this would mean, and didn’t want to digest it all in my dorm,” said attendee Eliana Eats ’26. “This is a space here, with Hillel, that I’m very comfortable with. … It’s been like a second home, so it felt like the safest space to come and see what was going on.”
Eats also discussed the specific experience of being a college student watching the election.
“Half of us are here doing homework while watching the election. … I think it’s a very different atmosphere than what you would normally get outside of a university setting,” Eats said. “The existential crisis of college students mixed with the existential crisis of American citizens.”
Additional watch parties were held on West Campus in Hans Bethe House and Carl Becker House, and on North Campus in the Appel Multipurpose Room. Cornell Republicans also hosted a watch party but did not respond to a request for comment.